Don't Shut Your Engine Down! Keep it Running!
Pastor Gbenga Shadare
The time now is exactly 2.43am. The date is Tuesday, April 19, 2005. Am sitting, working on my laptop, while listening to and half watching TV. The TV noise comes alive in my consciousness from time to time. So I pick up the remote control to surf between channels. As I am surfing through Channels, I suddenly stopped at CNN. And now, am watching Larry King Live! Where there is an interesting interview with Mrs Cindi Broaddus, the sister to Robin McGraw, Dr Phil McGraw’s wife.
She was attacked five years ago by an unknown, hateful bigot who sprayed her with Sulfuric Acid from a highway overpass in the quiet countryside of Oklahoma. The attack left her completely disfigured and totally physically eaten up. The attack touched and grieved the soul of many in America, who could not understand why someone would attack a very simple, happily married, God – fearing, easy going, grandmother that has not offended him nor done any evil to warrant this kind of random, willful act.
Well, five years on and with the attacker still unknown and of course not yet arrested, Cindi has picked up the pieces of her shattered life and is back on her feet; completely recovered (though with scars all over her body and with a nicely reconstructed, make-over face) but with a good spirit and an upbeat attitude. She is not in the least angry with her attacker ( she says she has forgiven the hapless person) and is now the author of a book titled “ A Random Act” , which catalogues her experience of coping with the pain, her experience with reconstructive surgery and the journey to recovery, forgiveness and a new life!.
She credits her faith in God, her family (husband, children and grandchildren, as well her siblings, friends), and her choice (she says she chose to live; to be better and not bitter) for recovery and her new life!
What touched me most in her testimony, which is the inspiration for this message is a statement which she made (quoted, actually) from her book, which is the titled of this message: Don’t shut down! Open Up!
That profound statement touched me in the depths of my heart and caused a surge of emotions that propelled me to type these words. My prayer this day is that it would touch you as much as it touched me and, that the Holy Spirit would use these words to speak to you, so that you too might find a way to open up and challenge the bitterness and gloom that wants to choke you.
Now you have got to understand that two things can happen to a car when it has been involved in a crash. It can either survive with the engine still purring and working or the car’s engine is completely shut down, stopped by fire and the dismembering of its parts.
Now, I would like you to carefully consider this imagery: The engine can survive the impact of the crash and continue to run or it can crash out of life or existence with the crash.
This is a good metaphor for most of us: We can survive the crashes of life without shutting down our engines or we simply crash out of existence.
I want to encourage you this morning, friends, not to crash out or shut down. Let the engine of your life remain in running condition and keep firing the cylinders so that life may come back to you. It’s not over till its over!
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous man but the Lord God deliver him from out of them all! He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken" (Psalms 34: 19 - 20) The bible has rightfully declared that truism; but many of us are not in tune with that prophetic declaration. We go through the challenges, the roughness, the unwarranted assaults, the undeserved attacks, the pains, the anguishes, the sufferings, for a reason: because God knows the situation will turn out for our own good and ultimately that we shall end up giving him glory!
And you know what, I am listening to Praise the Lord now, on this early Tuesday morning and the preacher is who is preaching is saying the same thing. This man should know, he buried his wife on the 16th of January, 2005 and he spoke of how God brought him through it all.
“For there is hope for a tree when it cut down ……………….” Job 14: 8. The devil does not look for weeds or brushes to cut down, he is looking for trees to cut down!
You are not going down, even though you have been cut down. You won’t shut down though the enemy is charging at your power source and is threatening to bring you an unexpected outage. Your light source is still charging and must be kept alive. You won’t shut down. I come against the spirit of depression in Jesus name. I declare that you shall not die but live to declare the glory of God. Its working for good – your pain is working out for His good and your own good. God has not abandoned nor forsaken you. You are the object of his Love
I encourage you this day to remain open. Keep you life open to God’s water, and his covering. You must never allow your engine to stop working. You must survive the crash!
Why God’s covering? Because, His covenant is a guarantee of His covering! For where there is a covenant, and a covenant - keeping God, there is of a truth, a Covering. God is Jehovah Nissi - The Lord Our Banner.
“He has brought us into His banqueting hall and His banner over us is Love”
Why? Because he knows that without His covering the devil will have us as easy prey. Many of us are looking for covering but we don’t want the covenant and we can’t have one without the other. So my first advice is that we should crave his covenant first of all.
With His covenant, we are sure of his covering. The covering of his covenant is the brooding that causes the engines of our lives to come back to life. We need his covering so badly, so desperately!
You know God will wait until we have completely come to the end of ourselves! God knows how to wait. Yes! Remember Lazarus! In John Chapter 11, Jesus waited a little longer when he heard that Lazarus was sick before showing up. By which time Lazarus died! Just imagine! And the Bible says that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters! Yet he waited for four days until Lazarus died!
But glory to God! When He arrived on the scene, Jesus said this is for the “Glory of God!” God is going to get the glory out of your mess! He is going to be glorified in your circumstances.
Things are about to change in you life right now. But you have to believe.
In Job 14, the bible say there is hope for a tree if it is cut down! Can you imagine that! Oh! I love God. He is the God of Second Chance!
Who can imagine a cut down tree and still say the tree is not shut down! “For there is a hope for the tree if it is cut down; for at the scent if water”. Praise God! The devil cut it down with the saw, cutlass or some sharpened object and he thought that was the end. The pains and the trials and the afflictions may look like the end, but it’s not the end yet. For the devil has not reckoned with the water from heaven.
The water from heaven!! Oh my God! This God is so wonderful and so gracious!
The water from heaven - the one that the enemy did not reckon with! “For eye has not seen neither has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him”.
I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. God is going to cause water and the rain to come from an unexpected source and your harvest would spring forth speedily. The drought has ended. The engine of your life is not shutting down.
Samson was in the twilight of his life, after his eyes has been gorged out and was a prisoner in the philistines army, used occasionally for sporting event to delight the fantasies and passions of the citizens! He was considered finished. Infact, the engine of his life was running out, but something kept that engine running.
His hair that had been shaved was growing without his adversaries’ knowledge. Gradually, his strength was returning and the ones who made jest of him did not even realize it. They were completely enamoured of his sporty value! They had written him off!
What a pity! Their passion for using a helpless slave and prisoner of war to satisfy their passion for cruel games got the better part of them. God was working mightily through this captured prisoner while they watched away!
That’s how God works through our trials and our afflictions. He brings out the very thing that has been despised, the thing that has become a spoiled war item, captured, and now no longer valuable to become the very source of your victory and dominion.
When Samson hair grew back to a level that did not look intimidating and threatening enough God packed so much power and strength into what looked or appeared helpless to secure the most important victory that Samson ever recorded.
But you know what; you have the power to make a sound choice unlike Samson. You must not shut down the power! Keep the engine running. It was Samson’s choice to shut down and go down with his victims, but you don t have to choose the same fate.
If Samson had wanted he would have remained alive. Inspite of the fact that he lost his eyes, God could have replaced them. Who knows?
Don’t give up! Don’t quit! Don’t back down! It’s not yet time! It’s too premature!
How do I know? Because I know that God is working out a greater, far exceeding, eternally glorious testimony out of your trials. You need these lessons and experiences to make it to the next level!
Don’t forget your attitude! The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly. If you put the candle out, darkness takes over and God cannot do much with that. God is Light and dwells in no darkness at all.
You must get rid of all bitterness and anger, malice and hatred. The bible says “You must eschew bitterness” But its interesting how many Christians still hold bitterness and harbour malice. You may be surprised to know that matured Christians even are guilty of this. You have to stop these. If you are truly born again you must let go of all bitterness.
Yes the righteous is as bold as a lion, but he must also be gentle. That s why Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and Lamb of the world! He was both bold and gentle.
We have to have a way of thinking and must stretch our minds!
That is the only way we can avoid shutting down our systems and the engine. The Word of God is the only way to activate our new way of thinking and new imaginations. The time has come to become excited about things we are going through for we are people of faith!
As people of faith, we hold the power, we hold the ace. And our God hold the eternal power. God would restore the stolen and the hijacked blessings and he would reimburse and restore the all that we have lost.
Every spirit of depression I bind you in Jesus name! The blessings are now closer than you think. There is going to be a fresh bursting forth; a budding, a sprouting of the stem, of the cut – down and repressed part of your life to come back to life.
The hair that was shaved and cut, the hair would grow. Where the enemy has stolen your power, depleted your strength and attacked the source of your destiny, and you felt that all was really gone and no hope is left, you will soon experience a release and a rebirth.
The Widow of Zarephath was on the point of eating what was supposed to be her last meal but God intervened and brought abundance! The barrel of meal shall not fail (waste) nor cruise of oil fail until the Lord brings rain on the earth (1Kings 17). The source of your strength shall not expire nor run out!
The diminishing supply shall be expanded! In Jesus name!
The very power left after you survived the crash is going to power you back to victory. As I close, I take you back to Mrs Broaddus story, after the attacker poured acid on her and brought her life to a standstill, and changed it forever, it seemed all hope was lost and that she was going to go down with this tragedy but she challenged herself after she realized that it was not God’s will for her to be destroyed by the random act.
She recovered from self pity, from surgery and after six weeks, with a reconstructed face, she was back at work and today her story, as captured in her new book “A Random Act” is how the experience has changed her life and how her story of forgiveness and healing is transforming lives.
She has become a succourer of many and is allowing God to use her story, the testimony, to affect lives and destinies positively for the better. People are rediscovering their joy and happiness in face of unprovoked attacks and unleashing of terror by assailants and attackers who wreak senseless havoc on people.
She is living a happier life today thanks to her new spirit. You too can recover from the crash.
Keep your engine running! Don’t shut it down! You will make it!
God bless you! Time now is 6.15am!
The shut down would never happen in Jesus name!
Pastor. Gbenga Shadare
